features; and both good men and bad would set their teeth grimly on
seeing Death, with the sands of their life nearly run out. Some say
they think the expression of Death gentle, or only admonitory (as the
author of "Sintram"); and I have to thank the authoress of the "Heir
of Redclyffe" for showing me a fine impression of the plate, where
Death certainly had a not ungentle countenance--snakes and all. I
think the shouldered lance, and quiet, firm seat on horseback, with
gentle bearing on the curb-bit, indicate grave resolution in the
rider, and that a robber knight would have his lance in rest; then
there is the leafy crown on the horse's head; and the horse and dog
move on so quietly, that I am inclined to hope the best for the
Ritter."

Musing on the mysterious engraving, Fouque saw in it the life-long
companions of man, Death and Sin, whom he must defy in order to reach
salvation; and out of that contemplation rose his wonderful romance,
not exactly an allegory, where every circumstance can be fitted with
an appropriate meaning, but with the sense of the struggle of life,
with external temptation and hereditary inclination pervading all,
while Grace and Prayer aid the effort. Folko and Gabrielle are
revived from the Magic Ring, that Folko may by example and influence
enhance all higher resolutions; while Gabrielle, in all unconscious
innocence, awakes the passions, and thus makes the conquest the
harder.

It is within the bounds of possibility that the similarities of folk-
lore may have brought to Fouque's knowledge the outline of the story
which Scott tells us was the germ of "Guy Mannering"; where a boy,
whose horoscope had been drawn by an astrologer, as likely to
encounter peculiar trials at certain intervals, actually had, in his